Monica’s Blog

#BehaveBarack

This morning I listened to Barack Obama’s comments regarding the end of the partial government shutdown and the increase (yet again) in the nation’s debt ceiling.

As usual, he droned on in a lecturing tone that I suspect puts even his biggest fans to sleep. Then he said something that made me laugh so hard I nearly fell off my chair.

Basically, he said everyone needs to be civil to each other when we have these disagreements. We can’t be calling each other names.

Seriously?

These wise words are coming from a man who spent the last two weeks calling Republicans “hostage takers” and “extremists.” He said nary a word as members of his administration likened Republicans to terrorists and anarchists. In fact, his supporters can never think of enough bad names to call those who identify with the Tea Party movement. Their favorite phrase for these folks is the disgusting “teabaggers.”

It is so typical of Mr. Obama to spend two weeks kicking sand in Republicans eyes and calling them names and then to stand up in the grandeur of the White House and pretend he’s above such things. Maybe that worked for presidents in the 1800s, but in the age of social media and twenty-four hour cable news, it won’t fly.

I have very little doubt that the next time it suits him, Obama will be hurling invectives once again at Republicans.

I hate hypocrites of all stripes, Democrats and Republicans. I’m also a mother, and I know from experience that sometimes when a child is misbehaving you have no choice than to step in and instruct your child to straighten up.

Since Obama clearly can’t seem to follow his own good counsel, I’m afraid we have no choice at this point than to act like any good parent and remind him to mind his manners.

This is necessary because this nastiness is reaching a crisis point. Obama should even agree with this strategy because he basically identified the problem himself this morning. Calling your opponents “terrorists” and “hostage takers” is not a good first step towards working together. I know he already knows this since he spent the last five years studiously avoiding calling real terrorists that name for fear of insulting them.

Still, he persists in continuing in this pattern of socially unacceptable behavior. Since he can’t seem to control his own actions, it appears that we’re going to need to help him.

Although I haven’t spent much time tweeting on the Red Girls Salon twitter account, I think I’ll start because it provides the perfect tool for calling out Obama each time he lobs another gratuitous and unproductive insult the Republicans’ way.

Here’s how it will work. Whenever I hear him lowering himself to resorting to insults to get his point across, I will tweet the offensive remark or phrase with the hashtag #BehaveBarack.

I encourage mothers (and fathers) across the country to likewise do the same. Think of it as doing your civic duty. As we all know, usually if you remind a child long enough, he’ll eventually come around.

Let’s hope this works, so we can finally engage in the sort of civil dialogue President Obama constantly professes to believe but sadly fails to follow.